


Fourteen Souls

by OverlyCheerfulRat



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Gen, Ghosts, Haunted Houses, Haunting, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Past Character Death, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 08:27:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19081267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverlyCheerfulRat/pseuds/OverlyCheerfulRat
Summary: Petunia researches her new house's history.





	Fourteen Souls

**Author's Note:**

  * For [realisations](https://archiveofourown.org/users/realisations/gifts).



> tfw you binge watch the haunting of hill house

The house is suspiciously cheap. It’s a beautiful old manor, large and seemingly well-maintained, so why is it so affordable? Petunia doesn’t trust it, but Vernon falls in love with the grounds, so they move in. She understands the price after the first night, when she wakes to someone banging on the door. “Dudley, is that you?” No one answers, but the banging intensifies, and she feels cold sweat run down her back. You’re being stupid, she tells herself. It’s Dudley playing a trick, that’s all. Petunia considers waking her husband to have him get it, but shakes her head at her foolishness. No need to bother him over nothing. When she walks across the room, it takes her a minute to get her courage up, but she eventually throws open the door- only to find the dark hallway empty. 

Every night, Petunia hears the violent knocking, but no one else does. However, Vernon makes excuses to avoid the locked door down the hall, Dudley complains that dogs bark all night, and Harry says nothing, but looks more exhausted than ever. All of them speed up when they have to walk past the marble statues in the foyer, and Vernon keeps muttering that he’ll have them removed soon. Petunia notices other things about the house as well, the porch lights that come on by themselves and stay on even after she’s flipped the switch, the constant scratching behind one particular section of brick in the basement, the disembodied laughter floating down the halls.

She finally decides to research the house’s history when Vernon takes Dudley out to a ballgame one night and they stay at a hotel. Harry’s asleep, but Petunia stays awake, making tea. The water has just boiled when someone touches her shoulder. She turns, wondering why Harry woke up, but it’s a tall man she doesn’t know. His fingertips are bloody, and he’s wearing loose, soiled, old-fashioned clothes. Beneath his freckles, his face is deathly pale. It’s the eyes that really concern her, blank white, like they’re rolled back in his head. Drool runs down his chin. He whimpers and moans, pointing into the study just off the kitchen. Then, before her eyes, he disappears. 

Petunia spends the next day at the local library, reading non-stop. She finds a picture of the man in a newspaper from 1926, and reads his obituary. His name was Newton "Newt" Scamander, a mentally handicapped man who lived with his parents and elder brother in the house Vernon had insisted on buying. According to the paper, he locked himself into the study and died of dehydration, but a book of the house’s history (the fact that there are entire books written about their house disturbs Petunia more than she wants to admit) suggests that his father had been the one to lock him in there. Later, she will notice old, deep scratches in the wood of the door.

The newspapers have brief obituaries, but the book is more informative. In it, Petunia finds a list of deaths that occurred in her new home, and discovers that it was built by Leonard Graves in 1907. Percival Graves, Queenie Goldstein, Jacob Kowalski, Newton Scamander, Theseus Scamander, and Credence Barebone all died there between 1911 and 1934. The house was vacant until the 60s, during which time two local girls, Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood, apparently broke in to explore. Their bodies were found at the foot of the grand staircase, necks broken. Shortly after that, the house was purchased by the wealthy Malfoy family, but the parents, Lucius and Narcissa, moved out after their son Draco died of a sudden fever. 

The house was practically free after that, and was bought for a very small sum by Arthur and Molly Weasley in 1970. They lived there with their family for two years, over the course of which three of their children (Bill, Percy, and Ginny) died of pneumonia. In 1972, their son Fred died in a fall, and his twin brother George hung himself days later. The couple left, along with their two surviving children, Ron and Charlie. Apparently, they still live in the area, as does Tina Goldstein, older sister of Queenie. 

She makes a list of deaths. Percival Graves, suicide by immuring himself in the basement walls. Queenie Goldstein and Jacob Kowalski, dual suicide by poison in the dining room. Newton Scamander, dehydration, officially an accident but possibly murder. Theseus Scamander, self-immolation. Credence Barebone, beaten to death with a meat tenderizer by his adoptive mother Mary Lou, who was sentenced to death for first-degree murder. Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood, broken necks from either falling or being pushed down the stairs. Draco Malfoy, unexplained fever. Bill, Percy, and Ginny Weasley, pneumonia. Fred Weasley, skull caved in after either falling or jumping from an attic window. George Weasley, asphyxiation by hanging. 

Petunia examines the list, then picks up the library’s telephone and calls Vernon. She is not a superstitious woman, but she’s seen a ghost and a pattern, and that’s enough for her. They need to leave as soon as possible.

No one answers her call.


End file.
